Faculty of Health, HMU Health and Medical University, Potsdam, Germany.
Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Appl Psychol Health Well Being. 2023 May;15(2):451-465. doi: 10.1111/aphw.12388. Epub 2022 Jul 27.
Although everyone would agree that bereavement is extremely stressful, surprisingly little is known about changes in different facets of affective well-being in the years surrounding the death of a loved one. On the basis of the Socio-Economic Panel Study, we examined changes in cognitive well-being (life satisfaction) and different facets of affective well-being (happiness, sadness, anxiety, and anger) in the years around the death of a partner (N = 989) and child (N = 276). Data on the death of a partner and child as well as cognitive and affective well-being were assessed yearly since 2007. Multilevel analyses revealed that both events were associated with very large well-being impairments (>1 SD) that were most pronounced for sadness, happiness, and life satisfaction in the first year of bereavement. Afterwards, bereaved individuals managed to recover impressively well: Levels of life satisfaction, happiness, and sadness were on average similar 5 years after losing a partner or child compared with 5 years before the respective loss. Our findings suggest (a) that many individuals tend to be capable to even cope with highly stressful loss experiences and (b) that Set-Point Theory not only applies to life satisfaction but also different facets of affective well-being around the death of a loved one.
尽管每个人都认为丧亲之痛极其痛苦，但令人惊讶的是，对于亲人去世前后几年中不同情感福祉方面的变化，人们知之甚少。基于社会经济面板研究，我们研究了伴侣（N=989）和孩子（N=276）去世前后几年中认知福祉（生活满意度）和不同情感福祉（幸福、悲伤、焦虑和愤怒）的变化。自 2007 年以来，每年都会评估伴侣和孩子去世以及认知和情感福祉的数据。多层次分析显示，这两个事件都与非常大的幸福感下降有关（超过 1 个标准差），在丧亲的第一年，悲伤、幸福和生活满意度的下降最为明显。之后，丧亲的个体令人印象深刻地恢复了：与各自失去亲人前 5 年相比，失去伴侣或孩子后 5 年，生活满意度、幸福感和悲伤感的平均水平相似。我们的研究结果表明：（a）许多人往往有能力应对高度压力的丧失经历；（b）设定点理论不仅适用于生活满意度，也适用于亲人去世前后不同的情感福祉方面。
